Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1887-05-05
ACoLoRADo sNOwSLIDE.
As Compared with an Avalanche In Switzcr-
land

IHIlu.
/ st. Louis Gu, be DemocIt
One can pick up almost any book OF
/ travel and find in il a description of on
/ avalanche in Switzerland, but have nev.
| er seen any satisfactory attempt to
picture the terrible grandeur ef Colora.
| do snowslide. The two are the same
thing, but the snowslide is more awful
/ and destructive than the avalanche. II
/ has better chance TO show what 1t can
do, by reason of the number of milet
which are worked in the pathway OF the
/ slides, and the carelessness of the miners
/ in exposing themselves TO danger and
! disregarding the warming signs the sky
and the snow always give before the
| slides begin. The most fearful slides oc
( cur during the Winter, after succession
of bright, warm days. The fountains
are heavily loaded with snow, which
has fallen in layers and frozen until IT
! lies solidly III mass from five to twenty
five feet deep all over the range, and in
canyons and gulches fifty feet sometimes.
The sun melts these layers, they lose their
hols on those below and start down the
mountain, often with $4,000 feet to travel
before they roach the bottom. As they
EO uONL bAAlNl IA NA7 VI nAV" 'NNN''' -
tached and the slide increases in weight
and velocity as it falls slide seen from
a distance is only white cloud, but il is
cloud weighing hundreds of tons. Trees
are bent and snapped in pieces, huge
rocks are uprooted and carried along, and
a house in the way Of slide is buried
aud carried away like leaf Nothing
but mountain will stop slide before IL
hurls itself against the level ground and
loses its momentum. This winter the
death list in consequence Of snOw-slldes
was light in Colorado. / believe the
miners are learning to be cautious. The
most destructive slide | remember was
one that came down upon the Sheridan
and Msndotr mines near the top OF the
range that rises above OurHy. II carried
away the kitchen and bunkhouse OF the
men and covered fifteen miners. Some
who escaped came down 20 Ouray on
snow.shoes over a perilous trail, running
nearly alt the way along precipices and
overhung with cliffs bearing trembling
masses Of snow threatening other slides.
They begged us for help TO dig out their
imprisoned comrades. We sent party
up on snow shoes Immediately; eight of
the nerviest men in the camp. They got
M to the mines safely and dug out the
bodies and the two live men. Then they
put seven Of the dead men onto sleds, and
with the rescued men started back 10
Ouray, a party of ifteen. They were
half way down when another slide came
down on the trail and swept away sleds,
corpses and rescuers. There was a spnce
fifty feet wide from the trnil 20 the brink
Of the canyon, over eighty feet deep.
Some OF the men were released by the
snow before they were carried to the edge
OF the gulf, but most Of them, with all the
sled bearers, went over and down upon
the deep snow at the bottom, Not one OF
that party was killed, although they re
some what bruised and they all, singly or
in small parties, made their way back TO
Ouysy within he next three days. The
corpses lay embalmed in the snow until
spring, when the thrawiBg Of the snow
made them visible. They we're then
brought down to Ouray and buried.